Fish that survived out of water for 6 hours looks to be in the clear

Looks like Big Blue is gonna make it.

The 18-year-old blue tang fish swam with ease Wednesday in her new tank at Animal Instincts Aquarium & Pet Center.

On Feb. 20, just after midnight, an unidentified man broke into the store, at 811 Plymouth Ave., and smashed the 180-gallon tank that contained Big Blue, 25 other exotic fish and 40 different types of coral.

On Feb. 20, just after midnight, an unidentified man broke into the store, at 811 Plymouth Ave., and smashed the 180-gallon tank that contained Big Blue, 25 other exotic fish and 40 different types of coral.

The suspect struck the large tank — kept in the fish room in the back of the store — with a pipe several times until it cracked. Moments later, he took out a piece of glass from the tank to make the water inside gush out faster.

Six hours later, the staff found Big Blue flopping on top of some rocks near a small puddle of water inside the tank.

Big Blue suffered deep-tissue wounds and scrapes and abrasions from being on the rocks. Schenck said he dipped the fish more than twice a day in a special solution to heal its wounds.

“She had severe eye cloud. She was breaking down with a whole lot of other stuff,” Schenck said. “She had also spots of fungus coming out around her head. The solution I’ve been using was to feed her and clean her off, internally and externally, to help supercharge her body.”

Big Blue also had difficulty with its equilibrium but has since regained its balance and is swimming much better.

“It’s her own fortitude that kind of pushed her through all this,” Schenck said. “She’s a miraculous fish, I’ll tell you.”

A customer bought Big Blue from Schenck about 14 years ago when the fish was barely the size of a quarter. The customer returned the fish to the store a little more than a year ago after it outgrew its tank at home. Big Blue quickly became a fan favorite.

“I’m glad she survived,” Schenck said. “At least we have one thing that survived.”